Changgyeonggung

Built in 1483 for the dowager queens, and the palace with the unhappiest modern history of the five: the colonial administration turned it into a zoo and a botanical garden, renamed it a “park”, and planted cherry trees over the demolished halls. The animals were moved out in 1983 and the name restored, but the great iron-and-glass greenhouse from 1909 is still standing at the top of the grounds, and it is the strangest thing in any Seoul palace.

What it costs

The cheapest admission of the four ticketed palaces, and included in the integrated ticket.

⭐ If you are already inside Changdeokgung, the connecting gate between the two costs a small extra admission and saves you walking all the way round to the front — the two palaces back onto each other and most people never notice.

⭐ Wearing hanbok gets you in free. This is a standing policy at all five palaces and at Jongmyo, not a promotion — rent an outfit from one of the shops clustered around Gyeongbokgung and Bukchon, wear it, and walk past the ticket window. It is why the courtyards are full of people in Joseon dress who are plainly not Korean, and it is worth doing on the day you plan to see more than one palace.

When to go

⚠️ The closing day is not the same at every palace. Gyeongbokgung closes on Tuesday. Changdeokgung, Changgyeonggung, Deoksugung and Jongmyo close on Monday. Plan “palaces on Monday” and you lose four of the five.

Closed Monday. It stays open later than the others on some evenings in the warmer months, and the pond at the top with the greenhouse lit behind it is the reason people come for that.

Getting there

Hyehwa station on line 4, exit 4, then about ten minutes downhill. Or walk through from Changdeokgung, which is the better way to arrive.

If you only have an hour

Myeongjeongjeon, the throne hall — the oldest surviving palace main hall in Korea, and unlike the others it faces east rather than south, because the ground would not allow otherwise.

Then straight up the slope to Chundangji, the pond, and the greenhouse above it. This end of the palace is a park in everything but name and is full of people from the neighbourhood rather than visitors, which after Gyeongbokgung is a considerable relief.

What people get wrong

Skipping it because it is the fourth-most-famous palace. It is the one where you can hear birds.